


Ascend

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-05
Updated: 2016-06-05
Packaged: 2018-07-12 10:12:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7098529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louisa finds Steve's cat, but he is far more than he seems</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ascend

Louisa still wondered what had happened to Steve’s cat. Had Dark Core or G.E.D stolen it? Had it been run over by the car, maybe poisoned by something? Had Steve’s cat eaten a rat bait and from then on he’d vowed not to use poisons or traps to keep the mice and rats away?

What she knew for sure about the cat was that it had been ginger. She couldn’t quite remember if Steve had said that it was a tom or not, but it was very like a tom to disappear. So whenever she saw a flash of ginger, she experienced a moment of joy before being disappointed that it wasn’t the right cat. It was always someone else’s cat.

And then one day she did find a cat that looked like a runaway. It was curled up on a pile of leaves that Louisa had made for a hedgehog home, purring happily while sunning itself.

“Are you Steve’s cat?” she asked.

The cat made an inquisitive purring noise as it looked up and opened its eyes. Then, it blinked slowly at her and time stopped.

“What’s happening?” asked Louisa, looking around in growing fear as pink descended over everything. It was just like in certain areas of the locked place in Harvest, only the light didn’t fade away after a while. There was the same music and everything.

The cat got up and stretched as it walked towards her.

“Well, you’ve found me,” it said. “That means that you’re ready.” It spoke with a female voice.

“Ready?” asked Louisa. “Ready for what?” It didn’t even surprise her anymore that animals around Jorvik could talk.

“Ready to find out the truth,” said the cat. “You are ready to learn your true destiny, Louisa.”

“I thought I’d never be ready,” said Louisa. “The druids don’t tell me anything.”

“I know. It’s frustrating, but they’re just very careful with their information,” said the cat. “They also don’t know as much as they say they do. Fripp knows a lot, but he won’t tell them. He only trusts the Soulriders with information like that.”

“But I’m a Soulrider, aren’t I?” asked Louisa. “He hasn’t told me much.”

“Hmm, no you’re not. Although, in a sense, you are. Aideen was, after all, the first Soulrider,” said the cat. “The horse-people gave me that title because of my special bond with my horse.”

“I thought Aideen was a girl on a horse,” said Louisa. “You’re a cat.”

“Unfortunately, yes, I did have to take this vessel to be able to speak with you,” said Aideen. “I’ll give it back to its rightful owner when this conversation is over, though. I promise.” She held up a paw as if to press it to her heart, but the gesture was impossible on a cat.

“What’s that?” asked Louisa, noticing a strange shape on the cat’s paw.

“Oh. They’re the only physical sign of my presence,” said Aideen. She rolled onto her back so Louisa could see all four of her paws. “I don’t know yet whether they’ll fade when I vacate this body. I hope they do, though.”

On the pads of the cat’s feet were the four symbols of the Soulriders, one on each paw. There was a lightning bolt, a star, a sun, and a moon. Louisa touched each of them, feeling only soft cat paw underneath.

“Cool,” said Louisa. “I bet it’s weird when you leave behind trails of moons, stars, and lightning, though.”

“Oh, very.” Aideen laughed. “I’ve puzzled many people with them.”

“So back to my original question: what am I ready for?” asked Louisa.

“Why, to learn who you truly are, of course. And before you say anything, yes, I know that you’re just a girl. But you’re also so, so much more.” The cat paused for dramatic effect, and then finished with: “You are Aideen reborn.”

“Really?” said Louisa. She expected to feel different, but she didn’t. “Well, I guess that explains my powers.”

“It does,” said Aideen. “I’m surprised that you aren’t a redhead, I was the first time I had a human form.”

“But then how are you appearing to me?” asked Louisa. “If I’m you, how can we be talking to each other?”

“Magic,” said Aideen. “It’s hard to explain.”

“Try me,” said Louisa.

“Okay then.” Aideen sat back up, tucking her tail over her paws. “While you were reborn with my magic and everything, I retained my memories and personality and everything else and poured it all into this cat. So while you have my magic, I have my thoughts. Does that make sense?”

“So you split yourself between me and the cat,” said Louisa.

“Pretty much,” said Aideen. “I couldn’t very well just have you with memories of a life you’d never lived. It would have driven you crazy.”

“So it’s like the other Soulriders,” said Louisa. “We have their magic but not their memories.”

“Yes,” said Aideen with a purr. “Now, are there any more questions you have for me? I’m sure you must have many.”

“Yes, I do,” said Louisa. “What was your relationship with the original Soulriders? Linda said that there’s a theory that they were your harem, but Alex thinks that you were all sisters and Anne thinks that they’re your daughters. Lisa thinks you were all just friends.”

“Oh wow, now that’s asking me to go back a long way,” said Aideen with a chuckle. “But I’ll try.” She closed her eyes again and, when she opened them, she nodded. “They were my friends, but I had certain affections with all of them. The moon, especially, admired me, and the Star I obviously loved the most as I gave her my life-bringing magic and red hair.”

“So Linda and Lisa were both sort of right?” asked Louisa.

“Yes,” said Aideen. “That is why you feel closest to Lisa, because she was the one whom I adored. Maybe some of my personality did come through to you after all.”

“Oh, I just like redheads,” said Louisa with a laugh. “Were the Sun and Lightning close as well?”

“No, that’s a new thing,” said Aideen. “Lightning actually had several heated encounters with one of the dark ones.”

“I think I know which one,” said Louisa, grinning. “Was it the white one?”

“Yes,” said Aideen. “How did you know?”

“Just something Katja said once,” said Louisa. “Sun looks like a princess, was she?”

“Well, she was the closest thing to a princess that the culture had,” said Aideen. “I was revered and worshipped, a goddess on earth. But I couldn’t lead, and anyway Sun’s family was already a royal one. So I let them lead. Sun wanted to travel, so I gave her that power.”

“Fripp said that ‘we’ gave them all these powers. Was he talking about you two?” Louisa wondered.

“Fripp likes to pretend that he had a bigger role in things,” said Aideen. “That glorified squirrel only asked for my help and aided me in splitting my powers between the new Soulriders.”

“I know,” said Louisa with a laugh. “He seems like the type to do that.”

“Now, your powers,” said Aideen. “You’re able to harness all of the powers that the Soulriders have. Even the ability to travel to Pandoria. I made those pictures, after all. Not the sculptures, though, those were made by the horse-people.”

“Why didn’t you appear to the other Soulriders?” asked Louisa. “They deserve to know all this too.”

“I can only appear to myself,” said Aideen. “The others wouldn’t be able to handle it. You know what I mean, don’t you?”

“Oh right, because you’re a goddess.”

“Yes,” said Aideen. “Mere mortals cannot look upon me without going blind. While the Soulriders are not mere mortals, they are human enough that it would hurt them immensely.”

“It hurts you too,” said Louisa. “You can see them but never show yourself to them. Can I pick you up like a normal cat or would you take offence to that?”

“Oh, why not, I do feel like a cuddle,” said Aideen.

Louisa picked up the cat and hugged it. She expected to feel magic, but the cat just felt like a normal cat.

“Shine my light,” a voice whispered in her ears, and then the cat really was just a cat again.

She wasn’t sure whether or not it was a dream. It had to have been. But then she looked at one of the cat’s paws and saw the sun symbol.

“I’m a goddess reborn and the druids kept this from me,” said Louisa. “Well, that’s annoying.”

The cat meowed at her and consented to being put in her saddlebag and being taken back to his rightful owner. Steve would no doubt be pleased to see him.


End file.
